1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a handwritten character and symbol processing apparatus capable of registering stroke data obtainable by handwriting input of characters, symbols, or the like in character string units and retrieving the stroke data. Further, it relates to a medium which stores a control program of the handwritten character and symbol processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A handwritten character and symbol processing apparatus comprises: an input part substantiated by a tablet or the like having an input surface to which characters or symbols are input by means of a predetermined input pen, the input part outputting stroke data of the input characters or symbols; a storage part for storing the stroke data from the input part by registering in a dictionary; a display part for displaying characters or symbols based on the input stroke data, and displaying characters or symbols based on a first proposal stroke data selected from among stroke data resulting by performing a character recognition and dictionary registration on said stroke data; and a control part for controlling the operations of the above parts.
In the handwritten character and symbol processing apparatus of the prior art, the character recognition process is performed in single-character units. Thus when a character string is input continuously by handwriting, the obtained stroke data are cut into stroke data of a predetermined segment unit, e.g. 1 character, after which the stroke data are encoded and stored. A device of the prior art that performs the character recognition process in single character units is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 4-313175(1992), for example.
In the handwritten character and symbol processing apparatus of the prior art, characters or symbols can be input by handwriting on the tablet by means of the input pen as if they are written on a notebook. As mentioned above, however, since the character recognition process is performed in specified units, e.g. 1 character, the cutting process is required. If the cutting process is inappropriate, a proposal character may not be selected, or may be quite different from a desired character even if the proposal character can be selected. Consequently, it is essential to check whether or not the cutting process was performed appropriately and to make corrections when the cutting process was inappropriate. However, such operations will cause to elongate the time required for the character recognition process. Also, these operations annoy the operator.